VOL. 8 No. 3 | September 2017

10/12/2017

Most lawsuits between families and clinicians concerning life-sustaining treatment are for injunctions. The family wants to keep the patient alive. But some (like this one in Connecticut) are for money damages after the patient has died.

One such case has just been filed against the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench. The wife of Johnnie Frank Spence alleges medical staff removed her husband from a ventilator without consent.

Doris Spence is seeking $100,000 in general damages on behalf of herself and seven family members, as well as punitive damages under the Fatal Accidents Act.

“The plaintiff states [the doctor] intentionally ignored the clinical proof of Johnnie’s level of cerebral function, and set forth on a course of conduct to withdraw treatment, knowing that Johnnie’s life would terminate.”